Pick up consumption and consume pulse (9)
I believe the answer is:
heartbeat
'pulse' is the definition.
(I know that pulse can be written as heartbeat)
'pick up consumption and consume' is the wordplay.
'pick up' becomes 'hear' (synonyms).
'consumption' becomes 'tb' (consumption is a name for TB or tuberculosis).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'consume' becomes 'eat' (eating is a kind of consuming).
'hear'+'tb'+'eat'='HEARTBEAT'
(Other definitions for heartbeat that I've seen before include "Circulation noise" , "Pulse of cardiac origin" , "Essential pulsation" , "Animating force" .)